A Quiet Place

Seicho Matsumoto, Louise Heal Kawai

$24.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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Japanese

Penguin Classics
11 November 2025

Fiction & Literature; Classic crime; Thriller & suspense; Fiction in translation

A thrillingly dark novel from 'Japan's Agatha Christie' (Sunday Times)

While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood?

When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life...

By: Seicho Matsumoto
Translated by: Louise Heal Kawai
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 182g
ISBN: 9780241744208
ISBN 10: 0241744202
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 11 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Seicho Matsumoto (Author) Seicho Matsumoto was born in 1909 in Fukuoka, Japan. Self-educated, Matsumoto published his first book when he was forty years old and he quickly established himself as a master of crime fiction. His exploration of human psychology and Japanese post-war malaise, coupled with the creation of twisting, dark mysteries, made him one of the most acclaimed and best-selling writers in Japan. He received the prestigious Akutagawa Literary Prize in 1950 and the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1970. He died in 1992.